


Stickshifts and safetybelts

by musterings



Series: Summer Gladnis Week 2019 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Drive-In Movie, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Outdoor Movie, Secret Relationship, brotherhood era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 03:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20269576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musterings/pseuds/musterings
Summary: “You seem kinda far away.”Ignis turned to face Gladio and furrowed his brow, “I’m paying attention to the movie.”Gladio waved his hand over the gap in the car seat between them.“I meant, y’know,” Gladio scratched his head, breaking up the gel that held it up, although it had almost laid flat from the humidity, “Like physically.”Written for Summer Gladnis Week 2019, Day 4, prompt: outdoor movie; adjectives: dreamy, sultry





	Stickshifts and safetybelts

Gladio was careful not to grip the steering wheel of the old convertible too tight and leave an indentation in the narrow leather trim as he turned into Ignis's street. It was a vintage job, a muscle car that Gladio's father drove in his youth, and kept in tip top shape as a rare hobby he continued from then as well. 

The local museum was hosting a drive-in movie theatre for the last few weeks of summer, showcasing double features of old movies that hadn't been screened in decades. To Ignis, it was a chance to experience a piece of Insomnia’s local history. To Gladio, it was a cheesy fantasy that stepped out from the old black and white movies he watched late at night whenever he waited for his father to get home from the Citadel.

With his foot by the brake pedal, Gladio pulled up by the kerb. Ignis approached the car from the steps of his uncle’s townhouse, only to stop a short distance away and survey the wide, blunt and rectangular nose of the muscle car and along the sleek red paint of its body.

“You even brought a car to match the occasion,” remarked Ignis with a curious tilt of his head,

“Yeah,” Gladio leaned over the back rest and opened the lid of the cooler on the floor of the back seat, “It’s Dad’s.”

“Where’s your car?” asked Ignis as he opened the front door and slid into the passenger’s seat,

“Flat tire,” answered Gladio with a shrug, while he checked the fuel tank for the hundredth time that evening. 

“That’s unfortunate,” Ignis twisted around to the back seat, stowing the snacks he prepared into the cooler alongside cans of drinks before closing the lid over them again, “Shall we then?”

It was about a half hour drive out of the city centre that lead out to a fairground that was home to carnivals in the spring. It was one of the milder, but more humid days of the tail end of summer, but the drive went by in a flash with the open top of the convertible cutting a comfortable breeze through the sultry air, and the sound of Ignis’s voiced raised over the wind that whipped his hair around as he laughed at one of Gladio’s dumb jokes making his heart leap in his throat.

If only his father’s car hadn’t been so wide, compared to Gladio’s, where he could easily and absent-mindedly reach out for Ignis’s hand at stop lights. This car instead had a pristine leather bench seat, the kind that stretched along the front with no interruption, separating the driver and the passenger with extra space for a third person to sit between.

Or extra space for the passenger to sit right beside him to hold as they left the city behind. 

He squeezed the wheel again as he eased the car past the ticketing stand where they purchased their tickets, before driving into the field where rows of cars had already taken parking spaces in front of a large screen that caught the light of a projector from behind.

Gladio unbuckled his seatbelt and he fiddled with the knobs of the radio to tune into the drive-in’s frequency. Satisfied that the sound had been picked up, he relaxed into his seat and watched from the corner of his eye as Ignis glanced in his direction, and unbuckled his own seatbelt.

“Want something to eat?” Gladio asked. 

“Not just yet, thank you.”

Their parking spot was further back in the field, but not too far that they couldn't see the screen. The clicking of a spinning film reel sounded through their radio, and on the screen a number counted down to the start of the film, and the murmurs from nearby cars died down.

“It feels so authentic,” said Gladio,

“That’s because it is,” said Ignis.

With a loud yawn, Gladio stretched his arm upwards and outwards to lay across the back rest, and his pulse raced in his ears, as if he had ran to this empty field rather than driven. Gladio cast his eyes along the car’s bench seat and the empty space that sat between them, and they landed on Ignis, who had his arms crossed, and his eyes focused on the screen.

Ignis cast a short glance at Gladio’s hand that sat on the back rest next to him, and faced the screen once more.

Though their relationship was fairly new, it had been a while since nerves had latched on so relentlessly to Gladio’s heart on a date with Ignis. They should’ve gone on enough dates by now for Gladio to have shaken those off. Meals in nice restaurants, or a coffee or two or three at nearby cafés, and if Gladio was lucky, Ignis would maybe agree to a movie at the local theatre where it was dark enough that he could hold his hand, and afterwards they'd walk a comfortable distance from each other on the way home or to their cars, as if they were only good friends and nothing more, while Gladio's hand itched to grab the hand beside him again.

But behind closed doors, there was no question as to whether his affections were reciprocated, with no shortage of Ignis’s soft kisses while they cooked together, or time spent with Ignis clinging to his side as they watched movies from the family couch.

At this rate, Gladio was ready to give up being in public altogether if it meant being able to shower Ignis with the attention he deserved, but working from home probably wasn't an option for the future Shield. 

It's not like Gladio didn't get it. Although they tried to keep their relationship under wraps, it was easily picked up by the current King's Shield, who was no stranger to the dopey and dreamy eyed glances that drifted from his son and to the Prince's Advisor. His father could not approve of their relationship any more, but it was still his responsibility to set Gladio aside and give him the Talk. Not _ that _ Talk. _ That _ Talk was given maybe sometime at age sixteen, and delivered in the classic clinical pragmatism that only Clarus Amicitia could deliver about the birds and the bees. _ This _Talk was a long time coming, from the moment it was decided that Gladio would live to serve Noctis as his Shield. 

When he was called to his father’s study, Gladio expected disappointment and quiet rage. He was well experienced in bearing the brunt of his father’s seething when he would catch Gladio sneaking a girl into his bedroom in the dead of the night or arriving in the early hours of the morning from parties he wasn't meant to have been at. 

So before Clarus could start his piece, Gladio told him, as sincerely as he could, from a young recruit to his superior, and a boy to his father, with his cap twisted and wrung in his hands, just how much Ignis meant to him.

What Gladio wasn’t prepared for was the apologetic deep set of pity in his father’s brow and the heavy sag of guilt in his shoulders as he sat in his worn armchair and poured himself a glass of whiskey in response. 

Gladio and Ignis were young and almost disgustingly in love, and Clarus could never stand between his son and happiness. That went for Ignis too, who Clarus may as well also loved like his own child. But not everyone in the Council or in the kingdom would be as open minded, Clarus had gravely explained, and any sign of weakness or distraction from either Gladio or Ignis would deal a devastating blow to their image, that of their families, and their loyalty to the Crown. 

"That's just the way it is," his father had said quietly and he poured his son a glass as well, and the first burning gulp had been as hard to swallow as the reality that sank in Gladio’s heart.

On the other hand, the closest to a loving father Ignis could ever have, the King gave them his blessings with utter joy. But considering the Scientias’ standing in society—a mostly foreign family, with roots planted in the Citadel’s administrative and political sectors, but lacked the noble rank that the Amicitia name held—and Ignis’s future career as a lifelong uphill endeavour to earn a place which he already well and truly deserved, it was safe to assume that Ignis may have received a similar, less familial talk from his uncle. So while Gladio was willing, and most likely more able, to risk the smallest hint of public affection, Ignis had more to lose, and understandably, more to fear.

And thus affection between them stayed behind closed doors, and Gladio settled for the hesitant kisses hidden in dark hallways or hands held in a car in an empty parking lot past midnight when they were certain that not even the security guard would be around. 

But they knew their place. And Gladio was willing to stick it out for as long as Ignis wished to, until their loyalties to the Crown and to their duties were well and truly established, that not even their King could doubt where they lay. 

But some days, Gladio longed for the same freedom he had with the girls he had stints with that lasted less than a week, or other boys he’d stumbled drunk down city streets with, whose names he couldn’t even recall the following morning. It was almost unfair how the public eye trained on him from birth could accept youthful indiscretion and irresponsibility when it was a.) fleeting or b.) with a woman, and but would be merciless the moment Gladio finally found someone with whom he felt he had found something real.

It was what drove him to find whatever opportunity he could get to lavish Ignis with the affection he wished he could with the whole world watching.

After a few minutes into the first film of the double feature for the evening, Gladio broke the silence.

“Hey Iggy.”

“Yes?” said Ignis quietly over the tinny music spilling from the car’s radio,

“You seem kinda far away.”

Ignis turned to face Gladio and furrowed his brow, “I’m paying attention to the movie.”

Gladio waved his hand over the gap in the car seat between them.

“I meant, y’know,” Gladio scratched his head, breaking up the gel that held it up, although it had almost laid flat from the humidity, “Like _ physically _.”

In the next car over, the sound of slobbered kisses slipped out of the open window of a couple’s neighbouring car. Slowly, both boys' gazes tracked from the couple and back to each other's and Ignis's eyes widened behind his glasses.

“We’re out in public," hissed Ignis. 

“It’s not like anyone’s paying attention to us,” said Gladio with a sharp jut of his chin at the neighbouring couple, “Don’t’cha wanna sit closer?”

Ignis looked down onto the floor of the car. He gripped the leather seat with both hands, then slowly slid himself across the bench seat next to Gladio.

“Well? Is this sufficient?” asked Ignis. He held his hands in his lap, with his elbows tucked tight against his sides.

“Yeah, but you can relax a little,” said Gladio, and he scooted himself closer, pressing their sides together as he draped his arm around Ignis’s shoulders, “I— Uh—" Gladio let out a stream of air, and he stared straight ahead at the screen, "I just wanna sit beside you. We don’t have to do anything." 

Ignis's head whipped from Gladio, who still avoided his gaze, and then back onto the large screen set up at the end of the field. His hands still gripped the edge of his seat, but he allowed himself to rest against the back of the seat.

Another few minutes passed, with the movie introducing a civil war from modern Lucian history and the soft spoken young woman who lived on a farm that would eventually be thrown into a whirlwind by it. 

"I'm sorry Gladio," said Ignis with a burdened sigh, his eyes fixed down to where his fingers curled against his lap,

"Huh? For what?”

“I know being with me hasn’t exactly been easy,” Ignis muttered,

“You’re fine Iggy—

“—and if you were with someone else instead—”

“_ Iggy, _ come on, don’t say that,” Gladio squeezed Ignis’s shoulder and he watched to see if Ignis would flinch under his touch. When he didn’t, he held him tighter against him, “You’re the only person I want with me here right now.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to—” Ignis continued, “I want to be able to do all— All _ those _ things with you too— But its just—”

“I know Iggy, I know_ , _but we can take it one step at a time,” said Gladio, “For now, I just wanna hold you, okay?”

Finally leaning into his touch, Ignis angled his eyes towards Gladio and he gave him a timid smile.

“Okay.”

Some more time passed as they watched along, until Ignis started shifting under his arm. As Gladio watched the screen, he could see Ignis’s head from the corner of his eye make small, subtle movements that tracked from one part of the front console of the car to the other.

Gladio caught the smell of Ignis’s shampoo as he tilted his head and rested it against Gladio’s shoulder.

“About your father’s car,” said Ignis,

“What about it?” asked Gladio,

“They don’t really make cars like his anymore, do they?”

“Not that I know of.”

“It’s manual transmission, is it not?” Ignis’s hand trailed along the arm slung around his shoulder, stopping to cover Gladio’s hand with his, 

“A stickshift? Yeah it is.”

“I find it interesting how the gear lever is in the steering column.”

Gladio’s eyes darted down to the steering wheel, where the lever to shift the car’s gears protruded from underneath it.

“Issat so,” muttered Gladio,

“Mm-hmm,” Ignis leaned over to look by Gladio’s feet, and sat back and he continued in a low voice over the cosy crackle of the film’s audio and into Gladio’s ear, “I assume the brake is a pedal?”

“Huh? Yeah?” answered Gladio distractedly. Ignis could recite the Lucian Constitution in his ear and it’d still send blood rushing in places highly inappropriate in public, “Do you know much about vintage cars?”

“No more than anyone else, these are merely my observations,” said Ignis, “But in a modern car, normally the gear lever and the brake would be right between the two front seats, wouldn’t they?”

Gladio glanced down where the sides of their hips were joined, right where the middle seat was, and he responded with a mouth gone dry, “I guess so, yeah.”

“A modern car,” Ignis leaned against Gladio’s chest, ”Like yours is.”

“Yep.”

“Where did you say your car was again, Gladiolus?” muttered Ignis,

“I told ya,” Gladio turned to look down at Ignis, “Out for a tune up.”

It was his turn for his eyes to widen when Ignis slipped two fingers under his chin and pulled him closer to his lips for a soft kiss.

“Not a flat tire then?”

Gladio’s eyes widened even more, and he turned back to the projected screen.

An arm found slid between the back of his waist and the leather back rest, and Gladio’s heart thumped in his chest as Ignis held his torso and crooned in his ear, “_ Gladio, _” 

“_ Fine, _” Gladio held his burning cheek on one hand, leaning his elbow over the top of the car door and shot a petulant glare over at Ignis, “It’s not everyday I can hold you in public.” 

They could’ve held each other in the back seat of his _ own _ car, but watching the movie from the back seat would’ve resulted in awkward viewing angles and strained necks. They’d have the perfect view from the front seat, but like Ignis said, with the gear lever and the brake between their seats, they would’ve been like two strangers who had incidentally sat in the same car to enjoy the same movie and not in each other’s company.

"I know," muttered Ignis,

“Yeah,” Gladio released a defeated sigh, “I figured, it’s dark, no one can recognise us, and ‘cos of the long front seat we could— sit and— you _ know _ what I mean?” he groaned and roughly ran one hand through his hair and he leaned his cheek on it again, “We could—”

“We could what?”

“We could snuggle,” mumbled Gladio into his hand.

The arms that wrapped around his torso tightened and Ignis’s muffled laughter against his shirt made his heart skip in his ribcage.

“So, you borrowed your father’s car,” murmured Ignis breathlessly against his chest, “Just for me.”

“I wanted to know how it felt, to be out and about with someone I _ really _ like, and just y’know—” said Gladio, and he sank into the leather seat, “Act like— _ Y’know_—”

“Like an ordinary couple,” said Ignis, his laughter dying down at his own words. He kept his arm behind Gladio’s back but he sat up to face him.

“Yeah.”

A gunshot resounded from the speakers, and they stopped to listen out for the crackled dialogue that streamed from the car radio to get the gist of where the movie was up to. Gladio had lost track of the plot some time ago.

“I thought no one would recognise Dad’s old car too,” continued Gladio,

“Maybe the Marshal would.”

“You think he’d be out here in a place like this?” Gladio let out a bark of laughter, “It’s kinda sad thinkin’ of him sitting in his car to watch a drive-in movie alone,”

“Don’t be harsh, I’m sure he could find someone to attend with him, if he wanted to,” said Ignis with a smile, “But for what it’s worth, yours was a cunning idea,” 

“I have that going for me, I guess,” Gladio laughed again, and pulled Ignis back closer to him, “But nothing gets past you.”

“My apologies for foiling your grand plans,” said Ignis, “The Citadel may fault your choice in a partner, but at least no one can fault your tactical prowess.”

“Hey,” Gladio tilted Ignis’s chin up and he pressed a kiss to his lips, “I’d never let anyone say _ anything _ about me choosin’ you.”

“Let’s hope it turns out better than your tactical prowess then,” said Ignis, his flushed cheeks raised into a smile.

“Oh _ ha-ha, _” and Gladio pursed his lips, until Ignis kissed the corner of his mouth.

“You said we’d take it step by step," said Ignis,

“Yeah, I did.”

Ignis glanced at the couple in the car beside them, and back to hold his face close to Gladio’s, “Let’s make this evening one of them.”

“Are you sure?” asked Gladio, “I don’t wanna pressure you into anything, I really did just wanna watch— and uh—”

“Cuddle,” Ignis supplied,

“Yeah, that.”

“You’ve already gone to the trouble of borrowing your father’s car. It’s dark, no one would ever associate this garish paint-job with either of us”—Gladio let out a snort—“And really, your father most likely took advantage of the front seat in _his_ youth—”

“We are _ not _ going there—”

“All I’m saying is,” Ignis laughed, and he rubbed a hand across Gladio’s chest, “It _ is _ a foolproof plan.”

And he was right. 

Under the cover of the night, Gladio wasn’t the scion of the Amicitia driving headlong into disgrace, and Ignis wasn't a misdirected Scientia who was shirking his duties. They were two young lovers under the blanket of the starlit sky, enjoying the last of summer’s balmy heat, surrounded by other anonymous couples—distracted with the movie or with each other, that no one would even notice who they sat beside—who after this took for granted daily what Gladio and Ignis could only savour for just this one summer’s evening.

Sure Ignis caught on, but no one gets past Ignis Scientia, and there was no other like him, in ways more than one.

“So,” Ignis began in a whisper, his breath hot and sultry like the humid summer air against Gladio’s lips, “Let’s make the most of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably my favourite one to write so far!!  
Inspired by this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQANg8OnIE4)
> 
> Editing in this is a little messy so I apologise!!


End file.
